Podcast: The Art of the Wire with Prop Joe, Marlo, Poot, and George Pelecanos

There he was: DONNIE ANDREWS, whom most Wire-heads know as "the real Omar." (Even bigger Wire-heads will tell you that Omar is a composite, but Andrews is the biggest contributor to the aggregate.) He was explaining the irony of how, before his prison stint and conversion into a community activist, white women would clutch their handbags when he walked by. This, he exclaimed, was ludicrous. Donnie Andrews wasn't going to take their purse. "I might stick a gun in your face," he smiled, to nervous laughter. But purse snatching? Come on.

It's poppin', yall. And now -- for those of you who couldn't be at the Back Bay Events Center on Friday night for the kickoff event of the third annual BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL -- we bring you the complete session of THE ART OF THE WIRE: A DISCUSSION WITH CAST AND CREATORS. Check it out below as ROBERT CHEW enacts what PROPOSITION JOE would think of Barack Obama, and JAMIE HECTOR explains the back-story he created for MARLO STANFIELD, and writer GEORGE PELECANOS admits they could've done a better job portraying women characters, and FRAN BOYD -- the inspiration for David Simon's The Corner-- explains love and redemption, and POOT . . . well, TRAY CHANEY will tell you that Poot is just Poot.